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Renewables Readiness Assessments

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Island partners benefit from IRENA’s assistance in the preparation of plans for the leveraging of their renewable energy potential. Renewables Readiness Assessments (RRAs), energy transition plans or roadmaps and grid integration assessments all pave the way for these activities in different ways.

RRAs analyse the national energy context, legal and regulatory framework, and the institutional and administrative structures of countries regarding their readiness to deploy renewables.

Roadmaps provide pathways regarding the technical, economic and policy elements involved in the deployment of renewables.

Grid integration assessments support the evaluation of costs and other efforts required to deploy a flexible power system with the capacity to host the planned shares of variable renewable energy within the grid without damaging the system’s stability and reliability.

Framework

Renewables Readiness Assessments

The Renewables Readiness Assessment (RRA) is a country-initiated, country-led, multi-stakeholder process that identifies the actions needed to support the deployment of renewables.

RRAs have made an immediate impact in islands:

Fiji adopted a new method for the calculation of tariffs for independent power producers (IPPs) making the tariff more attractive to investors;

The Utilities Regulatory Authority of Vanuatu decided to develop regulatory guidelines for IPPs and Power Purchase Agreements;

The Republic of the Marshall Islands developed an action plan for grid-connected renewables and a plan to use solar photovoltaic systems as an alternative to diesel for mini-grids.